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POLITICAL OPINIONS, 



BY A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



A Iruih cloihtd in apt luords^ 

Is an armed soldier, going forth to victory. 



CHICAGO: 
E. B. MYERS & CHANDLER, 

18G5. 



IMRODIICTORY NOTICE 

Pi'cpaped for the I'lihli.slicrs hjj a tli.'iihii/iiisJied tfurist. 



WiTUOUT coiuiuittuig myself to all the [irojiositious 
euuuciated in this pamphlet, I yet regard it, as a whole, 
as a produetiuu of rare merit, as well from the crystal 
clearness of its style, as from the profound thought and 
patriotic feeling which it evince^ on every page. Such 
discussions are greatly needed at the [ireseut time. 

The war of arms is happily ended ; but that of ideas 
rages still. The sword has done its work, and now 
tlie ])en must resume its functions. And fortunate, truly, 
will the country be, if it show suflicient wisdom to 
welcome calm argument, and candid investigation, con- 
(InctL'd in the tone of this temperate essay addressed to 
tlie intellect, in i)rf^ference to the usual political appeals 
to the lowest passions, ajid meanest prejudices of human 
nature. 



POLITICAL OPINIONS. 



BY A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



A truth clothed in apt xvords, 

Is an armed soldier, going forth to vidory. 






CHICAGO: 

E. B. MYERS & CHANDLER, 

LAW BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS. 

1865. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year of onr Lord 1865, by 

E. B. MYERS & CHANDLER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern 
District of Illinois. 



OOlsrTEIl^TS. 



SBCTION PAGB 

I. Sovereignty not in the People, but in the Law 5 

n. Distinction between Natural and Political Rights.. 5 

ni. Dignity op Office — the Popular Error 6 

IV. Compensation for Public Service 1 

"V". Number op Offices and Length op Official Terms ... 8 

VI. Executive Appointments to Office 9 

VII. The Negro and the Suffrage 11 

VIII. Election op Executive and Judicial Officers 12 

IX. The True System op Banking 13 

X. Inter-State Relations and Commissioners 14 

XI. Encouragement of American Genius 16 

XII. The Great Powers of Government 17 

XIII. Special Legislation 19 

XIV. The Inquest by Common Law Jury 19 

XV. Military Tribunals 20 

XVI. Appointment op Provisional Governors 22 

XVII. Cause op the Rebellion — a Negro Territory 22 

XVIII. Effect op the War on Party Politics 23 



POLITICAL OPINIONS. 



I. 

SOVEREIGNTY NOT IN THE PEOPLE, BUT IN THE LAW. 

The law alone, is supreme. It governs alike majorities 
and minorities — the states and the nation. The people 
never govern. They only choose the ministers of the 
Law, which is over all. If the law did not control ma- 
jorities, the Eepublic could not endure. The invisible 
sovereignty of the Law, bears the same relation to the 
state, that the Invisible Deity does to the church. 

II. 

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN NATURAL RIGHTS, AND 
POLITICAL RIGHTS. 

Natural rights come by birth ; Political rights by the 
civil law. As to natural rights all persons are born free 
and equal ; but no one can have any political rights, 
except such as are conferred by the Sovereign Political 
Authority, 

Political rights are given, not by any abstract rule of 
right and wrong, but from sound discretion, as seems most 
conducive to " the greatest good of the greatest number." 

The right to life, food, and the orderly use of one's 



6 POLITICAL OPINIONS. 

faculties, comes by birth ; but no one can have by birth 
a right to vote or hold office. The rule that native white 
men vote at the age of twenty-one years ; that women do 
not vote at all ; that foreign-born residents may vote after 
a certain probation and certain ceremonies ; and that the 
suffrage is altogether denied to Indians and negroes, has 
nothing to do with natural rights. The sovereign author- 
ity deemed it wise to establish this rule, it may see fit to 
change it ; but whether the old rule be adhered to, or a 
new one be adopted, has as little to do with the " inalien- 
able rights of man," as the appointment of a minister to 
the court of St. James. Either all human beings have a 
natural right to vote, without regard to age, sex, race or 
condition, or no one has such right, except it be conferred 
by law. 

III. 

THE DIGNITY OF OFFICE — THE POPULAR ERROR. 

In the Eepublic, all honors and powers belong to the 
offices established by law, and not to the men by whom 
the office may happen to be administered. The emperor 
of France, is himself the government. The president of 
the United States is only the executive hand of the Law. 

Within the last thirty years, the American people have 
gradually lost sight of the distinction between the office, 
which is incorruptible, and the office-holder who is some- 
times the contrary, and have included both in their 
derision and contempt. 

This was a popular crime, and the just punishment 
follows inexorably in its train. The office-holder in the 
United States is, for the time being, invested with a por- 



POLITICAL OPINIONS. 



tion of the power and dignity of the Eepublic, and ought, 
for the sake of the office, to be respected accordingly. As 
a man you may despise him, but as your superior in the 
state, you should do him reverence in his official character. 
To act otherwise is to disgrace, not the office-holder, but 
your country. 

One of the first steps toward the restoration of the 
Eepublic, is to restore in the hearts of the people, a sin- 
cere respect for the offices through which their govern- 
ment is administered. 

lY. 

COMPENSATION FOR PUBLIC SERVICE. 

The principal who cheats his employees out of half 
the value of their service, will drive honest and capable 
men out of his employment, and induce others to enter 
it who will persuade themselves that it is, at least, 
excusable to make cheating even, by cheating. 

No more cunning or successful scheme for prostituting 
the government to base purposes, was ever devised by 
the wit of demagogues, than, under the honest-sounding 
watch- word of "economy in public affiiirs," to reduce the 
compensation for public service so low that competent 
and faithful men cannot devote their undivided time 
and ability to the public business. 

The success of this scheme rapidly drove the integrity 
and talent of the country into the management of private 
corporations, commercial ventures, and manufacturing 
enterprises, in which industry could provide for the 
maintenance of families, the education of childi'en, and 
the comfort of old age. 



POLITICAL OPINIONS. 



But the experiment has been fiilly tried. The accursed 
rule of " Poor pay and the steahngs in," including every 
species of indirect plunder to make up the deficiency of 
wages, has been substituted for the good old maxim that 
"the laborer is worthy of his hire," and retained till 
the extent and number of official corruptions have become 
absolutely appalling. 

The ancient rule must be restored. The compensation 
for public service must be such that it will be an induce- 
ment to the highest order of ability to devote itself to 
the promotion of the public good. The salary of each 
of&ce should enable the holder to support a respectable 
position in society, and accumulate something for the 
" rainy day " which every one ought to anticipate. There 
is no such thing as reducing salaries below the acceptance 
of knaves ; the only recourse is to elevate them to the 
acceptance of honest men. 

Finally, every man who shall have served his country 
well, in any high office, must be provided for life, with a 
sufficient pension to support a family decently. For it 
is monstrous to turn a President or a Senator out of a 
more than imperial office to cam the support of his 
household by common toil. 

V. 

THE NUMBER OF OFFICES AND THE LENGTH OF 
OFFICIAL TERMS. 

He who takes a public office, ought to lay aside all 
other absorbing cares, and devote his best energies to the 
public service. K he has been engaged in other business, 
he should so far give it up that it will not prevent him 



POLITICAL OPINIONS. 



I 



from rendering the best and highest service to his 
sovereign. Therefore, a sufficient amount of duty should 
be required of the incumbent of each office, to sufficiently 
occupy his time, and require his abilities. And the 
official term should be sufficiently long to warrant a 
citizen in giving up a lucrative business, and enable him 
to master all the difficulties of the situation, and give the 
public the benefit of his schooling and experience, and 
acquit himself with that honor which every right-minded 
man esteems. 

An infinite reform would be wrought by dividing the 
whole number of public offices by three, and multiplying 
the temis and the salaries by the same number. The 
effect on the American Congress would be equally happy 
and astonishing. It has become impossible for Congi-ess 
to deliberate : it can act with its present numbers, only 
like a board of supervisors, through committees whose 
chief business is to shirk personal responsibility, cover up 
the common ignorance and incompetency, and build 
bridges for the passage of every species of legislative 
speculation. 

VI. 

EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENTS TO OFFICE. 

The proper filling of offices by executive appointment, 
is impossible under the present system. The theory of 
the government is, that officers appointed by or under the 
direction of the President, will be selected without 
reference to the petty local interests and prejudices, 
which more or less affect every community. As things 
now are, this theory is not realized once in a thousand 



10 POLITICAL OPINIONS. 

times. Nearly every such appointment is controlled by 
" a ring ; " and thougli a citizen were wiser than Solomon, 
and more just than Aristides, and though in addition to 
that, four-fifths of the community should desire his 
appointment, he would have no more chance than "the 
man in the moon " of receiving the office. 

The remedy for this infinite evil is simple. Let Ex- 
ecutive Commissions be created once in four years, to sit 
at the capital of each State, and hear, and in the first 
instance decide upon, all applications for appointment to, 
or removal from any executive office. Eequire all appli- 
cations to be in wiiting, and to be filed in the ofiice of 
a United States clerk or other proper officer, a reasonable 
time for inspection and remonstrance, before the sitting of 
the commission. Cause a calendar to be made, and every 
application to be entered upon it, and make a timely 
publication of that calendar in a public newspaper. Let 
the majority of the commission be citizens of other States 
than that in which they are to act. Have the hearing 
public and summary, and allow no appeals fi'om their 
decision except in cases of forgery or fi'aud. 

The government must cease the practice of sending 
abroad, as representatives of the United States, men 
destitute of that knowledge of foreign affairs, and general 
political history, without wliich the consul, or it may be 
a higher ofl&cer, appears like a fool, and disgraces his 
country accordingly. 



POLITICAL OPINIONS. 11 

VII. 

THE NEGRO AND THE SUFFRAGE. 

As a race, negro men are incapable of attaining tlie 
average intelligence and abiHtj of American white men, 
twenty-one years of age. The negi'O therefore exists in a 
state of perpetual minority. He may be made free, but 
he cannot become a citizen. 

But if he were ever so intelligent, he would have no 
right to citizenshij). Even our American women, as 
intelligent, cultivated and lovely as any in the world, are 
not made citizens, because the Sovereign Power of the 
country does not deem it wise to impose upon them the 
burdens of citizenship. 

The right of sufii-age has been already too much 
extended. The duties of an American Citizen are too 
great and too sacred to be performed by every member of 
the human race. The privilege of naturalization has been 
frightfully abused. And this abuse has created in the 
towns and cities of the country large numbers of voters 
who are confessedly and notoriously used by artful 
demagogues to control elections, elevate unworthy men 
to office, and secui'e the passage of unwise or corrupt 
measures. 

The naturalization laws may be well enough, but the 
administration of them has become, to use an army 
phi'ase, terribly demoralized. Naturalizations are made 
by wholesale, and he must be a wretched foreigner 
indeed, who cannot procure "naturalization papers" 
under present practices. 

The fathers of the Eepublic thought a property quaM- 



12 POLITICAL OPINIONS. 

cation of the sufirage wise. Not that every man fit to 
vote would have the specified amount of property, but 
that as a general rule, men who were honest, industrious 
and intelligent enough to vote, would accumulate at least 
the requu'ed amount of property. The foundation of the 
rule was this — the law protects both the person and the 
property ; therefore both the person and the property 
should be represented by the suffrage. The experiment 
has been tried, but no respectable statesman will hazard 
his reputation, by a declaration that the abolition of the 
property qualification has benefited the country. 

VIII. 

THE ELECTION OF EXECUTIVE AND JUDICIAL OFFICERS. 

The supreme burlesque on republican government, was 
the selection of judges and sheriffs by popular vote. The 
true doctrine is, that those who enact the laws, shall be 
freely selected by the voice of the majority ; and shall be 
answerable directly to the people for the proper discharge 
of their dutie?. In other words, the legislator is a repre- 
sentative. But though the legislator may be called a 
servant of the people ; the law^ to which he gives form, 
is, and ought to be their master. It should govern alike 
those who opposed and those who favored it — the minor- 
ity and the majority. Executive and judicial officers are 
its ministers^ — not representatives of the people. Neither 
executive nor judicial power can justly be representative. 
In the exposition and execution of the law, the popular 
prejudices, caprice and clamor, ought to be no more 
heeded than the wail of the wind, or the moan of the 
sea. Therefore candidates for executive or judicial office, 



POLITICAL OPINIONS. 13 

sliould not be compelled, or permitted, to run round their 
districts, begging or buying the votes of every malefactor 
whom it may be their duty to consign to the penitentiary ; 
but all such officers should be so selected and appointed, 
as to be independent, not of the law, but of the commu- 
nity over which they are to administer the law. If the 
law be not satisfactory, it may be changed in the author- 
ized mode; but while if stands, its ministers should 
command and enforce obedience. 

If any doubt these doctrines, let them look over the 
political history of the last twenty years. There is not 
one of the innovations which are here condemned, that 
has not worked the injury of the honest, industrious, 
intelligent and worthy ; and the encouragement and pro- 
motion of every class of political knaves and vagrants. 
And it is the poor, not the rich, who suffer most heavily 
from these subversions of the true principles of the 
government 

IX. 

THE TRUE SYSTEM OF BANKING. 

One extreme naturally follows another, and the mean 
between two opposite extremes, is commonly right. The 
first extreme was a national bank, corrupting the govern- 
ment. The second extreme was an indiscriminate wild- 
cat state bank system, impoverishing the people. The 
mean between these opposite extremes of the centraliza- 
tion and the diffusion of financial power, is a national 
currency, under a national law, secured by private prop- 
erty, and conducted by private enterprise, under the 
supervision of fit ministers of the law. The issue of 



14 POLITICAL OPINIONS. 

currency by state banks sliould be prohibited by law. 
Productive securities, sucli as interest-paying bonds, and 
real estate tbat will command good rents, should be fur- 
nished, recorded, and put within the power of the United 
States courts in the judicial district where the bank is 
located, and at the national capital. Suitable penalties 
should be provided as well against the misuse of deposits, 
as for the non-redemption of bills ; and the judges should 
be required to charge their grand juries, at least four times 
in each year, to diligently inquire into and true present- 
ment make, of all violations of the banking law, which 
should be given them in charge, or otherwise come to their 
knowledge. Instead of creating an army of new office- 
holders, the enforcement of the banking law should be 
committed to the present judicial and executive officers 
of the government. Let every citizen have in his own 
judicial district, a record of securities deposited at the 
national capital, a grand jury, prosecuting attorney, judge, 
petit jury, and marshal, to enforce a sufficient law, and 
there need be little fear of any considerable losses. Under 
such a system, honest, able and prudent bankers would 
thrive, and their bill-holders and depositors prosper. 

X. 

INTER-STATE RELATIONS AND COMMISSIONERS. 

No one is fit to hold any great office, either state or 
national, who has not traveled through the most important 
sections of the Republic. Travel, contact with the people 
in different localities, actual knowledge by personal ob- 
servation, of the wants and advantages of many commu- 
nities, — these things are essential to cosmopolitan ideas. 



POLITICAL OPINIONS. 15 

The trouble witli too many of our office-holders, espe- 
cially with members of Congress, is, that they know too 
little of the country outside of their own districts. The 
want of this knowledge makes men narrow-minded, pre- 
judiced and contemptible. 

These states are not insignificent provinces, they are 
empires, and the Great Republic is in strictness entitled 
to be called the Empire of Empires, and the government 
of the states and the nation must be comprehensive, 
liberal, and grand, accordingly. 

The American Congress should, from time to time, 
make a tour of the country in a body. They would in 
this way spend the people's time and money to much 
better purpose than they ofttimes do. 

The legislatures of the different states should, from 
time to time, entertain the legislatures of other, especially 
the more remote states ; and each state should keep at the 
capitals of some, if not all of the other states, a High 
State Commissioner, to disseminate among the people 
whatever information might lead to, or increase commer- 
cial intercourse between the people of the different states ; 
or to the opening of new markets for produce and manu 
factures ; or to inducing the immigration of such classes 
as can be spared from one, and are needed in the other 
state ; and to promoting such distributions and invest- 
ments of capital as the wants of the country require. 

These things inaugurated and continued for a period of 
ten years, would repay incalculably the expenses they 
would require. 



16 POLITICAL OPINIONS. 

XI. 

THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF AMERICAN GENIUS. 

A system should be pei'fected for offering a regular 
annual list of honors and rewards for the highest achieve- 
ments in agriculture, commerce, manufactures, science, 
art, and literature. The effect of such a system in devel- 
oping the powers of the American people, would be 
wonderful. It would be equal to hunting through the 
country with a lantern, to find fit persons for places of 
honor, trust and profit. It should embrace everything 
that makes a nation great. It should be so arranged that 
it would give the state and national governments, year by 
year, the names of the volunteer contributors to every 
branch of business and occupation, so tested and classified 
as to be available for practical purposes. Every aspirant 
for honest fame might try his fortune here. Essays on 
our foreign relations, would show who possessed the 
proper qualifications for foreign appointments ; articles 
on the practical administration of powers and offices, 
would show who might be prudently entrusted with such 
administration ; literary and scientific efforts would show 
the names, residences, and abilities of those from whom 
philosophers, historians, poets and teachers might be 
selected. 

The grand advantage of this system would be, that 
place and station would make no difference between com- 
petitors. The shoemaker on his bench could compete 
with the cabinet officer in his department ; the farmer's 
son by the country fireside, could enter the list, and con- 
tend for the honors, with the son of the millionaire in the 
university. 



POLITICAL OPIlSriONS. 17 

The name and the effort of every one whose endeavor 
should display more than common ability, should be pre- 
served for future use. Graded honors should be given to 
all whose productions should exhibit a high order of 
talent ; and for the best, reasonable rewards should be 
bestowed, 

XII. 

THE LIMITS AND RELATIONS OF THE GREAT POWERS OF 
GOVERNMENT. 

To allow power to define its own limits, and declare 
conclusively the occasions for its exercise, is to permit 
despotism, pure and simple. 

The office of the Legislative department is to establish 
rules for the control of cases subsequent to the rule. 
It cannot declare what the law was, nor can it execute 
the statutes it enacts. The rules it establishes govern > 
the men who make them, as well as the rest of the com- 
munity. It is evident that the legislative power, kept 
within its true bounds, cannot change the nature of the 
government. 

The office of the Judicial department of the govern- 
ment is to declare what the law was, at any given time, 
and what the law requires to be done at the time when 
the case arises. It cannot say what the law shall be, or 
ought to be, and if its judgments be not voluntarily 
obeyed, it has not the power to enforce them, without the 
aid of another department. It has a voice, but no hands ; 
and therefore if kept within its proper bounds, cannot 
subvert the government. 

The Executive department is the hands of the state. 



18 POLITICAL OPINIONS. 

Its office is to execute the requirements and tlie judg- 
ments of tlie law ; without judicial interpretation, where 
none is required ; with trial and adjudication, where con- 
troversy arises. It can neither declare what the law 
is, nor what it shall be. It may j)rimarily determine 
that the occasion for action has arisen, but this decision 
is at its peril, and subject to revision by the judiciary, 
upon the demand of any one aggrieved. So that this 
department, acting within its sphere, cannot overturn the 
Eepubhc. 

To some extent, each department is the aid and 
servant of both the others. Each department appears 
to exercise some powers which properly belong to the 
others. But this confasion is apparent, rather than real — 
by permission, rather than by usurpation. For example : 
the legislature permits the courts to make rules of 
practice, and executive officers to establish methods of 
procedure; the courts permit the legislature and execu- 
tive officers, to make inquiries and determinations in the 
nature of trials and judgments ; and the executive 
department appears in some things to be, not a grand 
co-ordinate department of the government, holding the 
sheriff's staff and the soldier's bayonet, but a mere 
creature of the legislature and the courts. But when 
controversies arise, each department stands revealed in 
its true rank and dignity. The legislatui-e repeals 
executive and judicial rules and regulations, and enacts 
others in their place — the courts declare legislative and 
executive acts and proceedings unauthorized and void — 
and the executive power refuses to enforce a statute or a 
judgment which is forbidden by the constitu.tion. In 



POLITICAL OPINIONS. 



19 



cases whicli are only doubtful, eacli department should be 
supported by the others. In clear cases of usurpation, 
both should oppose the other. 

Precedents of usurpation by each department of the 
government may, doubtless, be found, but a bad pre- 
* cedent cannot change the truth of a piinciple, however 
much it may embarrass its action. 

XIII. 

SPECLiL LEGISLATION. 

The proper business of a legislature is, to make laws, 
not to grant privileges. There should be just and Hberal 
laws for the formation of corporations both private and 
municipal, but special charters should not be given, except 
in cases of such extraordinary character and merit that 
special privileges would be universally approved 

A prohibition of special legislation would change, as 
by magic, not only the character of the laws, but also 
the character of the law-makers themselves. It would 
destroy the lobby. The privileges now sold by corrupt 
legislators to a few monopohsts, it would extend to all 
whose means, ability and energy might stimulate them to 
compete for honors, wealth, or influence. 

It is useless to attempt to conceal the almost universal 
contempt into which legislative bodies have fallen ; and 
nothing less than a prohibition of special legislation can 
enable them to regain their original influence and position. 

XIV. 

THE INQUEST BY COMMON LAW JURY. 
One of the most admirable contrivances of the common 
law, was the inquest by a jury, carefuUy selected by 



20 POLITICAL OPINION'S. 

faithful counsel, and sworn to a faithful discharge of their 
duties in the premises. The attention of modem statute- 
makers is called to this fact; for, judging from their 
miscellaneous manufacture of batches of commissioners, 
and the nature of the duties they impose on boards of 
supervisors and of aldermen, they need the reminder. 
The following are examples of questions which might be 
determined by such inquest, and the judgment of the 
court thereon, at any term of any common law coui't, 
viz. : 

The necessity for taking private property for roads and 
other public uses ; and the compensation which ought to 
be paid therefor. 

The amount of money required for various municipal 
purposes. 

The condition of public works, buildings, and institu- 
tions ; and the manner in which the officers in charge 
thereof have discharged their duties. 

Such inquests, publicly held in open court, would not 
only ascertain and declare, better than any other means, 
the real truth of the matters to be investigated ; but 
would also prevent the prevalent bribery and corruption 
of the ex parte commissions which, according to present 
practices, determine such questions in the back rooms of 
beer-shops, and other equally convenient places. 

XV. 

MILITARY TRIBUNALS. 

A military tribunal is not a court, in the judicial sense 
of the terra. A trial by such tribunal, is simply an 
executive inquest, like a sheriff's trial of the right of 



POLITICAL OPINIONS. 21 

property, or a coroner's inquiry. Sucli inquests are 
permitted by the judiciary, and take place under its 
supervision. For tlie posse comitatus, and tlie army, are 
the same in kind ; and force is the servant, not the 
master. The sheriff, the governor, the president, the 
general, must protect the people and their rulers from 
violence, and enforce the mandates of the law. The 
president, assuming the existence of a state of facts 
which would warrant it, may in the first instance declare 
martial law or suspend the habeas corpus as an executive 
act ; but the judge, exercising a power which the presi- 
dent does not possess, may sit' in judgment on the action 
of the executive officer, may find judicially that the facts 
did not exist which would have justified the executive 
action, and may declare that action unauthorized and 
void. 

The president need not wait for judicial or legislative 
action till the government is overturned ; neither need 
the judge suffer his power to be usurped by an executive 
officer, or his functions to be suspended when he is able 
to cause the process of his court to be executed within 
his jurisdiction. The judiciary may see a conviction by 
court martial, and permit the infliction of the penalty of 
death; but if it should be represented to the judicial 
authority, that the court martial was proceeding contrary 
to law, that authority would have the right to interpose, 
inspect the proceedings, and if erroneous, quash them, 
and discharge the prisoner. Of course, where no courts 
exist or where they have been in fact dispersed, the 
iudicial supervision cannot be exercised, but the abstract 
principle remains the same. A judge may make a wrong 



22 POLITICAL OPINIONS. 

decision — an executive officer may disregard a judicial 
order, — the people take the chances of these mistakes; 
but if an officer will make mistakes, they prefer to have 
him make them within the limits of his own department. 

XYI. 

THE APPOINTMENT OF PROVISIONAL GOVERNORS. 

The President is the chief executive hand of the nation. 
It is his duty to see that the laws be faithfolly executed. 
He cannot enact a law, nor can he create an office. But 
finding the office of governor of a state vacant, and that 
a rebellion has introduced anarchy so that there are no 
proper officers to succeed to that vacancy, he may, as an 
executive act, install, provisionally, a governor de facto 
to hold and exercise the office, till a governor de jure 
shall be ready to receive it from his hands. That pro- 
visional governor may, in hke manner and for the like 
purpose, fill all the other offices in the state, for he is 
the chief executive officer of the state. To this rule 
there is the exception that the executive cannot appoint 
provisional officers to enact new laws. The executive 
protects, but it does not create. 

XYII. 

THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF THE REBELLION — A NEGRO 
TERRITORY. 

The immediate cause of the Rebellion, was the loss 
of the equilibrium in the Senate. The Southern states 
had struggled, almost a generation, to preserve their 
power in that body. The rapid and inevitable increase of 
Northwestern states, soon made it apparent that there 



POLITICAL OPINIONS. 23 

■would be a permanent majority of senators from tlie free 
states. Southern politicians had perceived that the 
moment such a majority, however small, should take the 
dominion of the Senate, the institution of slavery would 
be doomed to extermination. The history of the country 
is a record of the encroachments of free labor on slave 
territory. The rebellion only precipitated what was 
inevitable. The relative merits of northern and southern 
society have been tried by battle, the highest arbitrament 
known to nations. The people who would not have the 
negro, have demonstrated their superior power, resourcQp, 
and glory. The suppression of the rebellion, is a solemn 
decree against the negro. He has not been able to 
maintain himself m any fi-ee state, and now all the 
states are free. Nothing remains for him but a Negro 
Territory, "We have given a territory to the Indian, we 
must provide one for the Negro. 

XVIII. 

THE EFFECT OF THE WAR ON PARTY POLITICS. 

The war will produce, or rather will call into the field, 
a new race of political leaders. Before the rebelhon, it 
seemed as though the American people had forgotten, 
both how to command, and how to obey. They elevated 
knaves, vagabonds, and criminals to ofl&ce by their votes. 
They committed the conduct and control of elections to 
the vagrants, the rabble, and the mob of society. By 
their action, they practically excluded the wisest and the 
best men from political conventions and management 
All this will be changed. The great generals, and the 



24 POLITICAL OPINIONS. 

great armies tliat have conquered the rebellion, will cany 
their military discipline and vigor into political aflfau'S ; 
and truly great civilians will be found to administer the 
offices of the Eepublic. 

Men will again be selected as party leaders, because 
they are above their fellows, not because they are below 
them. Offices and honors will again seek the men ; and 
the men when they accept them, will be masters, not 
mendicants. 

The lust of power which led the South into rebellion, 
and the lust of gain which corrupted the North, will be 
subdued in the hearts of the people, as they have been 
overcome on the field of battle. The glory of the first, 
and the peace of the second generation of the Eepublic, 
will return. 



LitSKHKY Uh 1-UNbKtbb 



013 785 653 



LAW BOOKS 

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Freeman's Illinois Pleading and Practice 5 . 00 

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' Breese' 3 Illinois Reports 5 . 00 

^ Illinois Reports, (Peck's), Vols. 19 to 30 inclusive GG.OO 

fl^ Illinois Reports, (Freeman's), Vols. 31 and 32 11 .00 

^^Puterbaugh's Pleading and Practice 5.00 

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Session Laws of Illinois, 1859-63-65, in 1 Vol 5.00 

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